All human knowledge is relational. What is light without dark? Good without evil? Perhaps free will and determinism, order and chaos, something and nothingness, are simply different sides of the same circle of scientific logic. As science has penetrated the atom, we’ve discovered that solid matter consists mainly of empty space. We’ve discovered that inert objects, such as rocks, consist of particles whirling round each other trillions of times a second. Likewise, believers and nonbelievers in God may both be right, just traveling the same circle in opposite directions.

All human knowledge is relational. “Discordant opinions,” said Emerson “are reconciled by being seen to be two extremes of one principle.”

Of course, there have been myriad conceptions of God since the dawn of civilization. There are the Abrahamic conceptions of God, including the monotheistic God of Judaism and the trinitarian God of Christians. In Buddhism, God is almost non-theist. In fact, conceptions of God vary so widely there’s no clear consensus on the definition of God. In short, believers believe God has an incorporeal (immaterial) existence, and that there’s an afterlife. Atheists believe in a strictly corporeal (material) world, and it’s bye-bye when you die.

According to biocentrism, a new “theory of everything,” the material and immaterial worlds are co-relative. Life and consciousness represents one side of the equation, matter and energy the other. They can’t be divorced; split them and the reality is gone. Although the current scientific paradigm is based on the belief that the world has an objective observer-independent existence, a long list of experiments shows the opposite. Consider the double-slit experiment: When scientists watch particles pass through two slits in a barrier, they behave like bullets and go through one slit or the other. But if you don’t watch, they act like waves and go through both slits at the same time. How can a particle change its behavior depending on whether it’s watched or not? Biocentrism maintains reality is a process that involves our consciousness.

We think life is just the activity of atoms and molecules – we live awhile and die. But biocentrism shows that if you add life to the equation, you can explain some of the biggest puzzles of science. For instance, it becomes clear why space and time – and the properties of matter itself – depend on the observer. How can entangled particles be instantaneously connected on opposite sides of the galaxy as if there’s no space or time between them? And how can events in the present affect those in the past? Recently, scientists sent particles into an apparatus and showed they could retroactively change something that had already happened in the past (Science 2007). Biocentrism says these phenomena occur because space and time aren’t just “out there,” but are tools of our mind. Remember you can’t see through the bone surrounding your brain – everything is woven together in your mind.

In the end, life is motion and change, and is only comprehensible through a biological concept of time. Motion is possible through the representation of time. “No concept, no matter what it might be,” said Immanuel Kant, “could render comprehensible the possibility of an alteration … for instance the being and the not-being of one and the same thing in one and the same place.” God, too, lives in action and is a relational concept, both existing and not-existing at the same time. “Discordant opinions,” said Emerson “are reconciled by being seen to be two extremes of one principle, and we can never go so far back as to preclude a still higher vision.”

Those who believe in God believe in an afterlife. Nonbelievers believe death is the end. Biocentrism reinforces the primacy of consciousness found in the work of Kant, as well as Descartes, Berkeley, Schopenhauer and Bergson. Without consciousness, space and time are nothing. At death, there’s a break in the continuity of space and time; you can take any point as your new frame of reference and estimate everything relative to it. Like the particles that can pass through two holes at the same time, you can consider yourself both alive and dead, outside of time.

According to nonbelievers, you simply die and rot into the ground. The universe continues to tick along like a clock; and in a few billion years, the sun will expand into a red giant, devouring all the inner planets, including the Earth. In one scenario, the universe will reverse its expansion, growing hotter until everything is crushed out of existence. Some theorists say the universe may bounce back into expansion in a “Big Bounce,” and so on indefinitely. In this view, the Big Bang was simply the beginning of one, say, 20-billion-year cycle time. We might be living in the trillionth universe (or any of an infinite sequential universes). Some say this oscillating model is consistent with the Buddhist worldview. Although speculation, it provides a sense of scale: If it takes a gazillion cycles to be reborn, that’s only 70 years out of what (in terms of human comprehension) is essentially infinity — the mathematical equivalent of materialistic death.

In contrast to the old mechanical worldview, biocentrism maintains that time is a form of animal intuition, not an object that ticks along independent of the observer. Without consciousness, the passage of time is meaningless. From this viewpoint you never die (see “Is Death the End?” and “Does Death Exist?” for development of this idea).

The implications of this were clear with the loss of my friend Bill Caldwell, who died over the holidays of a heart attack after golfing. Bill was CEO of Advanced Cell Technology (where I work), and one of the most decent human beings I’ve known. He struggled against the last day to cure human disease. When the company almost folded, Bill was the only other officer who didn’t jump ship. He refused to give up and believed we could make the world a better place for millions suffering from horrific diseases. Indeed, a few weeks ago we received FDA approval to carry out the world’s first clinical trial to use embryonic stem cells to try to prevent blindness. Accepting responsibility for the hopes of patients, Bill said “We do not intend to let them down.” My regret is that someday patients will benefit from stem cell therapies, but will never know the sacrifices that Bill and his wife, Nancy, made for their well-being.

At the viewing, Nancy leaned over the casket, tears streaming down her face. She was with Bill at every step. When the company couldn’t make payroll, she used her own money to pay the employees. It seems like yesterday I was at their wedding dancing with Nancy under the stars in her flowing gown. As Nancy guarded over Bill’s body, surrounded by majestic floral arrangements, I recalled the words of Loren Eiseley: “There remained in his garden only the dried husk of an old plant among flowers reaching for the sun.” But I knew that God or no God, that somewhere outside of our primitive thinking – of any particular spatio-temporal possibility – that Bill missed yet another golf game, and that he, Nancy, and I were sitting on the beach with a bottle of Champagne celebrating our recent success.

Robert Lanza has published extensively in leading scientific journals. His books “Biocentrism” and “Beyond Biocentrism” lay out the scientific argument for his theory of everything.

Biocentrism shocked the world with a radical rethinking of the nature of reality.

But that was just the beginning.

“Beyond Biocentrism is an enlightening and fascinating journey that will forever alter your understanding of your own existence.”—Deepak Chopra

“Beyond Biocentrism is a joyride through the history of science and cutting-edge physics, all with a very serious purpose: to find the long-overlooked connection between the conscious self and the universe around us.”—Corey S. Powell, former editor-in-chief, Discover magazine

Don’t miss the book that started it all, and shocked the world with its radical rethinking of the nature of reality.

In biocentrism, Robert Lanza and Bob Berman team up to turn the planet upside down with the revolutionary view that life creates the universe instead of the other way around.

Biocentrism takes the reader on a seemingly improbable but ultimately inescapable journey through a foreign universe‒our own‒from the viewpoints of an acclaimed biologist and a leading astronomer. It will shatter the reader’s ideas of life-time and space, and even death … the reader will never see reality the same again.

“Like “A Brief History of Time” it is indeed stimulating and brings biology into the whole. Any short statement does not do justice to such a scholarly work… Most importantly, it makes you think.”—Nobel Prize Winner E. Donnall Thomas

Lanza's Paper is the Cover Story of Annalen der Physik, which Published Einstein's Theories of Relativity

In his papers on relativity, Einstein showed that time was relative to the observer. This new paper takes this one step further, arguing that the observer creates it. The paper shows that the intrinsic properties of quantum gravity and matter alone cannot explain the tremendous effectiveness of the emergence of time and the lack of quantum entanglement in our everyday world. Instead, it’s necessary to include the properties of the observer, and in particular, the way we process and remember information.

The quest to unify all of physics into a “the theory of everything” has inspired a host of ideas. Now a pioneer in the field of stem cell research has weighed in with an essay that brings biology and consciousness into the mix.

Lanza featured on the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC’s) Ideas, one of the oldest and most respected radio programs in the world

BEYOND BIOCENTRISM: Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of DeathHost Paul Kennedy has his understanding of reality turned-upside-down by Dr. Robert Lanza in this paradigm-shifting hour. Dr. Lanza provides a compelling argument for consciousness as the basis for the universe, rather than consciousness simply being its by-product.

Reception to Biocentrism by Scientists & Scholars

“… Robert Lanza’s work is a wake-up call to all of us”—David Thompson, Astrophysicist, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

“The heart of [biocentrism], collectively, is correct…So what Lanza says in this book is not new. Then why does Robert have to say it at all? It is because we, the physicists, do NOT say it–or if we do say it, we only whisper it, and in private–furiously blushing as we mouth the words. True, yes; politically correct, hell no! Bless Robert Lanza for creating this book, and bless Bob Berman for not dissuading friend Robert from going ahead with it…Lanza’s remarkable personal story is woven into the book, and is uplifting. You should enjoy this book, and it should help you on your personal journey to understanding.”—Richard Conn Henry, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University

“It is genuinely an exciting piece of work…and coheres with some of the things biology and neuroscience are telling us about the structures of our being. Just as we now know that the sun doesn’t really move but we do (we are the active agents), so it is suggesting that we are the entities that give meaning to the particular configuration of all possible outcomes we call reality.”—Ronald Green, Eunice & Julian Cohen Professor and Director, Ethics Institute, Dartmouth College

“[Biocentrism] takes into account all the knowledge we have gained over the last few centuries…placing in perspective our biologic limitations that have impeded our understanding of greater truths surrounding our existence and the universe around us. This new theory is certain to revolutionize our concepts of the laws of nature for centuries to come.”—Anthony Atala, renowned scientist, W.H. Boyce Professor, Chair, and Director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine

“Having interviewed some of the most brilliant minds in the scientific world, I found Dr. Robert Lanza’s insights into the nature of consciousness original and exciting. His theory of biocentrism is consistent with the most ancient traditions of the world which say that consciousness conceives, governs, and becomes a physical world.”—Deepak Chopra, Bestselling Author, one of the top heroes and icons of the century

“It’s a masterpiece…combines a deep understanding and broad insight into 20th century physics and modern biological science; in so doing, he forces a reappraisal of this hoary epistemological dilemma…Bravo”—Michael Lysaght, Professor and Director, Center for Biomedical Engineering, Brown University

“Now that I have spent a fair amount of time the last few months doing a bit of writing, reading and thinking about this, and enjoying it and watching it come into better focus, And as I go deeper into my Zen practice, And as I am about half way through re-reading Biocentrism, My conclusion about the book Biocentrism is: Holy shit, that’s a really great book!—Ralph Levinson, Professor, University of California, Los Angeles

From physicist Scott M. Tyson’s bookThe Unobservable Universe

“I downloaded a digital copy of [Biocentrism] in the privacy of my home, where no one could observe my buying or reading such a “New Agey” sort of cosmology book. Now, mind you, my motivation was not all that pure. It was my intention to read the book so I could more effectively refute it like a dedicated physicist was expected to. I consider myself to be firmly and exclusively entrenched in the cosmology camp embodied by the likes of Stephen Hawking, Lisa Randall, Brain Greene, and Edward Witten. After all, you know what Julius Caesar said: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” I needed to know what the other camps were thinking so I could better defend my position. It became necessary to penetrate the biocentrism camp.

The book had the completely opposite effect on me. The views that Dr. Lanza presented in this book changed my thinking in ways from which there could never be retreat. Before I had actually finished reading the book, it was abundantly obvious to me that Dr. Lanza’s writings provided me with the pieces of perspective that I had been desperately seeking. Everything I had learned and everything I thought I knew just exploded in my mind and, as possibilities first erupted and then settled down, a completely new understanding emerged. The information I had accumulated in my mind hadn’t changed, but the way I viewed it did— in a really big way.”

I spent a couple of years rolling pennies and eating canned spinach and pasta while I tried to understand the universe.

U.S. News & World Report Cover Story

“…his mentors described him [Lanza] as a “genius,” a “renegade” thinker, even likening him to Einstein.”

“Robert Lanza is the living embodiment of the character played by Matt Damon in the movie Good Will Hunting. Growing up underprivileged in Stoughton, Mass., south of Boston, the young preteen caught the attention of Harvard Medical School researchers when he showed up on the university steps having successfully altered the genetics of chickens in his basement. Over the next decade, he was to be “discovered” and taken under the wing of scientific giants such as psychologist B. F. Skinner, immunologist Jonas Salk, and heart transplant pioneer Christiaan Barnard. His mentors described him as a “genius,” a “renegade” thinker, even likening him to Einstein.”

We’re taught that the universe can be fundamentally divided into two entities: ourselves and that which is outside of us. But you’re not an object — if you divorce one side of the equation from the other you cease to exist.

New experiments suggest part of us exists outside of the physical world. We assume there’s a universe “out there” separate from what we are, and that we play no role in its appearance. Yet experiments show just the opposite.

Ideally, our concepts of nature and God should adapt to our evolving scientific knowledge. Relative to the supreme creator, we humans would be much like the microorganisms we scrutinize under the microscope.

Biocentrism unlocks the cage Western science has unwittingly confined itself. By allowing the observer into the equation opens new approaches to understanding everything from the tiny world of the atom to our views of life and death.

We take physics as a kind of magic and think everything just popped into existence one day out of nothingness. But we’re living through a profound shift in worldview, from the belief that life is an insignificant part of the physical universe, to one in which we’re the origin.

We’re about to be broadsided by the most explosive event in history. But it won’t be rockets that take us the next step. Sometime in the future science life will finally figure out how to escape from its corporeal cage.

Everyone knows that something is screwy with the way we visualize the cosmos. Theories of its origins screech to a halt when they reach the very event of interest — the moment of creation, the “Big Bang.”

If we could see before the first single-cell organism, and after the last man and woman, only you would remain — you, the Great Face behind, that consciousness whose mode of thinking that contains the world.

We think of time and consciousness in human terms. But like us, plants possess receptors, microtubules and sophisticated intercellular systems that likely facilitate a degree of spatio-temporal consciousness.

Did you ever wonder why people like Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson didn’t fare any better than you or I despite all their money, fame, and access to people of wisdom? The answer lies in your own backyard.

It seems natural that someday we’ll make machines that’ll think and act like people. However, for a machine or computer there’s no other principle but physic, and the chemistry of the atoms that compose it.